Pirates read better according to Dave Eggers

June 16th, 2010

I read about Dave Eggers 826 Valencia adventure in San Fransisco a while back – where in a Pirate Shop kids come to learn to read. Learning is a funny thing, I reckon you attract a greater more willing audience by saying come in and play Pirates. The Guardian writes

Named after its address in the Mission district of the city and guilefully hidden behind a Pirate Supply Store shopfront, “826 Valencia” helps students aged from eight to 18 to develop writing skills in informal workshops. By seducing young patrons with pirate parrots and peg legs, it removed the stigma associated with extra literacy lessons.

The San Francisco store was followed by a Superhero Supply Store in Brooklyn, New York, which sells capes and tins of “anti-matter”. Seattle then took up the challenge, setting up the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company. The growing network of individual projects is linked through the Once Upon a School website.

And the project is now coming to the UK – here is a great post on 826 and the London store is pioneered by Ben Payne and Lucy Macnab